Notes and Gleanings. 1 17 



Dwarf Poinsettias. — There is, perhaps, no inhabitant of a stove, in 

 winter, of such striking beauty as Pomsettia piilcherrvna, with its terminal disk 

 of spreading bracts of the most glowing scarlet ; but it has one great drawback, 

 — the shoots always grow to an unsightly length before the bracts are formed. 

 Having kept the store-plants in a greenhouse during the summer that the 

 growing wood might be hardened, cut off, at the beginning of August, about six 

 inches of the tip of each shoot ; thrust the cut end into dry silver sand to stop 

 the bleeding ; and immediately strike them in silver sand, taking special care to 

 prevent the leaves from flagging. Bottom heat may be used, but is not neces- 

 sary. By the first week in November, when they have attained from eight to 

 fifteen inches in height, they will begin to display the scarlet bracts. 



Of course, the best tops must be selected for striking ; and the process might, 

 perhaps with advantage, be delayed to the middle of August. 



Messrs. Editors, — In reply to your question in the June number of the 

 Journal, " Can any nursery-man furnish trees of this beautiful species ? " {Celtis 

 occidentalism I would say that " I am the man," and can supply a reasonable 

 demand. There is such a slight difference in the two species, that I am inclined 

 to think they are generally confounded.* The C. occidentalis, with us, hardly 

 makes a tree ; whilst the C. crass if olia makes a low, very spreading one, — often 

 reaching sixteen inches diameter of trunk. Probably Mr. Fuller does not know 

 the latter, when he says of the former, page 136 " Forest- tree Culturist," "A 

 small tree, of no particular value or beauty." 



I have noticed the large annual deposit of wood to be sometimes as much as 

 a half-inch in thickness. 



I was under the impression I had inserted it in my catalogue sent you in 

 May, but, on reference thereto, find I was mistaken. It is, however, itt the 

 nursery. Yours truly, &c., Edward Tatnall. 



Wilmington, Del. 



CuRCULios AND Coal-Tar. — Having read a statement some time since, 

 that corn-cobs saturated with coal-tar, and suspended from the branches of plum- 

 trees, would keep the " little Turk " away from the plums, I resolved to try the 

 experiment. By the way, is he or she a Turk because his or her device is 

 always a crescent ? But, leaving the question of ethnology for the present, 

 I will give the result of my experiment. 



I procured a keg of coal-tar, and a quantity of cobs, and, after tying a string 

 around each, put them into the tar, and repaired to a favorite plum-tree, prepared 

 to carry the war directly into the enemy's dominions. I first spread sheets 

 under the tree, hammered and shook the rascals out, and gave them the most affec- 

 tionate treatment. Then, after much tribulation, arising from the fact that the 

 vile stuff would keep dripping from the cobs, and would get upon the strings, 

 reducing my hands and person to much the condition of the cobs, I got them 

 suspended : I mean the cobs, not the hands or the person. I also tied a news- 

 paper loosely around the body of the tree, and smeared it also with the tar; 

 then set the keg at the foot of the tree, to heighten, as far as possible, the effect 



* Prof. Gray considers them only varieties, and is doubtless correct . 



